VMware VSA how to license?

I installed a cluster with the vSphere Essential Plus license and the shared storage was provided by the VMware VSA. As I usually do, I installed everything with the trial license and I’ve applied the commercial licenses before moving into production.

When I logged in, in to the customer My VMware site, I noticed that there wasn’t a code dedicated to the VSA.

After applying licenses in vCenter, this was the result:

As you can see from this snapshot, VSA remains in “Evaluation Mode” with expiring date 22/05/2013.

At this point, I was worried that the VSA stopped working and for this reason I’ve opened a support ticket.

This is what the support guy answered:

As informed, VSA is a feature in vSphere 5 Essentials Plus bundle, which doesn’t require a separate license key to license VSA.

As long as vCenter Server 5 is licensed, VSA will be licensed.

From the VSA about page, we can see a License Key, which is the same of vCenter.

Finally, we can say that for the VSA included in the VMware vSphere Essential Plus bundle, we don’t need a separate license.

About The Author

I'm currently working as a Solution Architect, Sr. System Engineer, Virtualization Specialist at RTC S.p.A. where I'm mainly focused in the design, implementation and support of the virtual infrastructures. My skills include storage, backup, disaster recovery, network and firewall.

Good post – had the exact same issue this morning thinking “Oh crap… it expires in 20 days…” But as you say – click the bottom right “vSphere storage appliance *version*” link and it says it is indeed licensed.